[meteorite-list] It's from the ashtray belt!

[Jimski47 at aol.com]

The Oakland Tribune reports the exploding streaks were especially visible  
Wednesday night over the San Francisco Bay area and other parts of Northern  
California, with reports of bright fireballs and loud booms from Santa Cruz 
 County to Mendocino County.
 
"Happened to look over, saw like a crescent shaped object, reddish orange  
in color," Edward Pierce told KGO-TV. "As it went away it started getting  
larger. Kind of expanding."
 
Jonathan Braidman, an astronomer at Oakland's Chabot Space and Science  
Center, told the station what Pierce and others saw were small, car-sized 
pieces  of rock and metal from the ashtray belt.
 
It crashed through the earth's atmosphere, "ionizing and setting the air on 
 fire in its wake," he said.
 
National Weather Service forecaster Steve Anderson tells the Tribune that  
warm temperatures and cloud-free skies are making the bright lights more  
visible, a phenomenon that should only increase as the weekend approaches and  
the shower continues.
 
The fireballs are part of the large, fast Orionid meteor shower, so-named  
because it has the Orion constellation as a backdrop.
 
_http://weather.aol.com/2012/10/18/stunning-meteor-showers-blaze-across-cali
fornia-sky/#page=1%3Ficid_ 
(http://weather.aol.com/2012/10/18/stunning-meteor-showers-blaze-across-california-sky/#page=1?icid)